Bears use a variety of habitats depending on the season. Ideal habitats provide food, shelter, and corridors for travel.

Flatwoods

Swamps

Scrub oak ridges

Bayheads

Preferred habitats contain trees and shrubs that produce nuts and fruits. There are 19 species of oaks native to Florida and each produces a different kind of acorn, most are seasonal favorites of bears. The most important plants to Florida’s bears are palmettos (Serenoa repens).

Bears eat the heart and berries from the plant and female bears den in dense palmetto stands when giving birth every other year in late January or early February.

FWC Facts:The Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is a large, gray, sausage-shaped marine mammal with leathery looking skin similar to an elephant's.